Presidential ambitions
Westport resident Beatrice Gormley's latest book is titled "Barack Obama, Our 44th President" (Aladdin Paperbacks). Gormley has written more than a dozen books for young adults, including biographies (Malcolm X, Marie Curie) and history-based novels (the Titanic). Her Obama bio is actually one of two projects she spent the past year writing. The other: a biography of "president-elect" John McCain, now a historical curiosity. As Gormley explains, biographically betting on two horses in the same electoral race is nothing new.
Q. You've done this before?
A. In 2000, I wrote biographies of George Bush and Al Gore. I still have both covers framed on my wall.
Q. When did you finish the Obama book?
A. I delivered most of McCain in late May and most of Obama in early September, then wrote the last chapter of each while McCain and Obama were basically living parallel lives. On election night I stayed up for Obama's victory speech, then got up early and wrote the last few pages, adding details like his grandmother's death.
Q. Did you have a rooting interest in the race?
A. As a biographer I feel very close to all my subjects - not that I'm going to give them a free pass. Last summer my political junkie kicked in, though, and I really wanted Obama to win.
Q. What might younger readers learn here that they don't already know?
A. An understanding of how much Obama appreciates other peoples' points of view, even if they're different from his. Many politicians claim to be uniters, not dividers. I believe that truly is his attitude.
Q. What about his early struggles in school
and constant questioning of his ethnic
identity?
A. Absolutely. Obama's early life was all tangled up with figuring out who he was and where he belonged.
Q. What most surprised you to learn?
A. You might call it the new American story. As a mixed-race person, Obama grew up in extraordinary circumstances, being both an American and an outsider. He stands outside our shameful history of racial tension, even though he wrestled with it. But he was never stuck in it the way most Americans are.
Q. Have you pulped the McCain book yet?
A. No, I've still got it. My Al Gore biography, too. It's too bad it won't be published, but I don't feel badly. The world doesn't really need another John McCain biography.
Q. Opened a Sarah Palin file yet?
A. No, nor did I give her much space in my McCain book. I could be wrong, but I don't envision a big political life for Sarah Palin. She'll do better hosting a talk show, I think.
JOSEPH P. KAHN 